


Merry CATmas

by rekallthirteen



Category: The Hobbit RPF
Genre: Christmas, Domestic Fluff, Family, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Pets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 22:41:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9037841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rekallthirteen/pseuds/rekallthirteen
Summary: All Richard wanted to do is have a peaceful time reading, but when he heard a crash and a yell from the other room he knew he should check out the source of the disturbance.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I felt like sharing some Christmas fluff. :)
> 
> And also because Richard strikes me as a person who says he hates cats all while cuddling his own cat and using baby talk.

It was toenails against the wood floor that first drew Richard's attention. Looking up from his book, he watched as Carl entered the room that they used as their library, moving at a slow pace and clearly looking for a quiet place for a nap. When he saw Richard however, his goal suddenly changed, moving closer to the couch Richard was lounging on, demanding pets, which Richard gladly gave him.

"Trying to hide from Pete?" Richard asked him as he moved his fingers around Carl's head in a rubbing fashion before dropping his hand lower to Carl's back and continuing the movement. 

After a few minutes of massaging Carl's body, Richard gently patted his side, letting the old dog know that he was finished. Carl took the hint, lifted his front paws up on the couch next to Richard and climbed up next to him, laying his head down on Richard's thigh who had turned his attention back to the book he was reading.

It really wouldn't have surprised Richard if Carl was indeed trying to hide from Pete. The two actually got along well, when Carl was willing to tolerate the younger dog, but Carl didn't have the energy he use too and there were times when he simply wanted to nap while Pete was always go-go-go. It was during those times when Pete had trouble realizing to leave Carl alone.

Richard had only read a few more pages when he got his next disturbance. It was Lee with Pete following, panting and wagging his tail. There was a grin on Lee's face and his hands behind his back. 

It was a clear sign that he was up to something.

"Look what I found," he said, revealing his hands to show Richard the small red, white and green sweater and a pair of brown felt antlers. 

Immediately Richard recognized Freddie's Christmas outfit and a smile broke out on his face. They had been worried the outfit had been missing since it hadn't been packed away with Carl's Santa costume, which they had found a few weeks ago. The sweater and antlers were bought last year for the cat but due to their work schedules around the holidays Freddie never got the chance to wear it. They were going to pick up a new sweater for Freddie when they bought Pete's outfit (an elf costume) but the pet store in town had been sold out of Freddie's size and they hadn't had the time yet to get around to visiting any pet stores in the city.

"He's going to look so cute," Richard said, taking the sweater from Lee and holding it up to inspect it. It looked just as new as it had been last year when they bought it, which was good considering neither one of them knew what had happened to it for the past year.

"He's going to hate us," Lee teased as he sat down on the arm of the couch and reached across Richard to scratch Carl on the top of his head. 

"You know that's not true." 

Freddie actually adored dressing up. At least he liked the dragon costume the Hannibal crew had gifted Richard. Lee had just shook his head when Richard had brought home the costumes but that hadn't stopped him from taking the larger of the two costumes and dressing Carl up. 

Lee however was not paying attention, instead choosing to move the antlers to the top of Richard's head. The band was way too small for him so instead Lee held it in place. "Hopefully it embarrasses him enough to stop him from climbing the tree."

"He'd never do a thing like that." Freddie was a good cat, he wasn't like other cats who would constantly cause problems for their owners. He was cute and loyal.

"You're in denial." Plucking the sweater from Richard's hand, Lee stood up. Automatically Richard reached out to playfully smack him on the ass but Lee was too fast, dancing just out of Richard's reach as he laughed while leaving the room with Pete following close behind.

Alone again with Carl, Richard shook his head as he gave the old dog a pat. "Your other dad is crazy." Carl however simply sighed in response as he closed his eyes once again and nudged his head, snuggling closer to Richard.

Returning to his book, Richard quickly became lost in the text. It was rare he got a chance to read for pleasure, there was always the next job to research for, but finally he had an opportunity to read what he wanted, a book that Lee had been raving about for months and Richard had to admit, Lee had been right. 

Finishing the chapter he was on, Richard had only gotten a few pages into the next chapter when he heard a crash from the other room, followed by a surprised yell from Lee. Before Richard could get up to investigate, Freddie darted into the room, wedging himself behind the couch that Richard and Carl were currently on.

"One of us is going to have to see what happened," Richard said, looking down at Carl who was looking up at him with big brown eyes, the disturbance having woken him up and the expression was clear, Carl had no intentions of getting up. 

"Fine, I'll go," Richard said with a dramatic sigh as he put down the book and got up.

It didn't take Richard long to find out what the commotion was, the hallway between the room they used as a library and the living room was short so Richard travelled the distance in no time. Once there it was easy for him to understand what had happened. Their Christmas tree, previously nicely decorated, laid on the ground, it's lights, tinsel garland and ornaments a mess in the middle of the floor. In front of the toppled tree sat Pete, his tail wagging and an ornament in his mouth which Lee was currently trying to get from him.

"Leave it," Lee said, while holding the palm of his hand a few inches under Pete's mouth.

Pete lowered his head his head slightly at the firm sound of Lee's voice, but he was also giving Lee a pathetic look with his eyes, slightly begging to be allowed to keep his new toy, but Lee was not budging and Pete eventually released the ornament into Lee's hand.

"Good boy," Lee praised as he patted Pete's head with his free hand. Pete's tail, which had been going at a steady pace, rapidly increased knowing he had done a good job.

At least some of Pete's recent training was paying off.

"Pete knocked over the tree," Richard said as Lee straightened up. He didn't even bother to try to keep the smugness out of his voice. Even with the mess before him, it was far too amusing to him that Pete had been the one who toppled the tree and not Freddie like Lee had predicted.

Lee however shook his head while holding back a laugh. "I hate to break it to you, but it was Freddie."

"Freddie's no where near the tree." Richard knew that for a fact since Freddie was currently hiding behind the couch in the library. The poor cat had probably gotten scared after Pete knocked over the tree. "It had to be Pete."

Quickly Lee closed the distance between them and placed a chaste kiss to Richard's lips. "I love you, but you're in denial about Freddie. I saw it happen."

"I don't believe you," Richard murmured with a smile on his face as he leaned in for another kiss, which Lee gladly gave him. He didn't really disbelieve Lee, if Lee said he saw Freddie do it, Richard was willing to accept it as fact, but he was also willing to pretend he didn't if it meant Lee wanted to try and convince him further with more kisses.

Unfortunately there was not a third kiss for Richard. 

They had more important matters to attend too, like getting the tree back up. With Richard on one side and Lee on the other they hauled the tree back up and then began the task of fixing the decorations. Fortunately nothing had broke in the fall so all it required was straightening the lights and garland, and placed the ornaments that had fallen loose back onto the tree. The end result wasn't quite as neat as what it had been originally but Richard and Lee mutually agreed that it was good enough. 

Especially with Pete bouncing around, getting in the way, in his attempt to 'help'.

"Now to find a cat to punish," Lee announced, a little too gleefully, as he rubbed his hands together.

"Lee . . ." Richard warned, although he wasn't concerned, he knew Lee would never do anything to harm Freddie. Sure enough his intuition was correct when Lee retrieved the cat-size Christmas sweater and antlers. Richard just shook his head at the plan. "It's not going to work, he's just going to like it."

"He only likes it because of the attention you give him," Lee replied as he headed towards the library with Richard trailing after him and behind them Pete, who was happy to go on an adventure. It was known the library was Freddie's favourite hiding spot when he was in trouble. "So honey, I'm going to need to have your back here and not give him the attention he's going to want."

A protest died on Richard's lips. He didn't give Freddie extra attention on purpose, it wasn't his fault that the cat always looked so adorable when he dressed up, but it wasn't the time to get into an argument. "It still sounds like a bad idea." 

Lee however ignored him as they entered the room and found the sight before them. On the couch was still Carl, sleeping away like nothing had happened, and curled up next to him was Freddie, also asleep.

"See," Richard said, his voice filled with smugness once again, "if it had been Freddie who knocked over the tree, he would be hiding. He was getting blamed for no reason."

Lee rolled his eyes. "We both know that's not true."

"I choose to believe it." Reaching forward, Richard gently rubbed Freddie's head who leaned into the touch and purred. Lee meanwhile just shook his head.

"He's acting cute on purpose."

"And it's working."

From his position on the couch, Carl raised his head and gave them a look that was both annoyed and pathetic. The message was clear, they were disturbing his nap, and Carl had long ago earned the right to have a peaceful sleep.

"I'm on to you," Lee whispered to Freddie before they both left the room, leaving the two fur kids alone so they could sleep. 

It wasn't long after they left the library when Richard realized he had left his book behind, and he was also very aware he had been using the room first, but in the end he decided it didn't matter and he could read some other time when Freddie and Carl wouldn't be disturbed.

"I really do spoil them," he muttered to himself when Lee was distracted with Pete so he couldn't hear him.

The rest of the day passed by without any further incidents beyond the fact that Lee never did manage to dress Freddie up and shame him. Richard merely shook his head every time Lee would try and he was often tempted to help him simply because he knew how adorable Freddie would look, but he wasn't going to give Lee the satisfaction of trying to humiliate their baby. Freddie could get dressed up on a different day.

That evening Richard and Lee found themselves once again in front of their Christmas tree, this time on the living room's couch which was only a short distance from the tree. Lit up, the lights illuminated what would have been a darkened room, it looked beautiful with it's multiple lights, but Richard paid little attention to it. Instead he was way to comfortable to acknowledge the tree at the moment.

On the couch, spread out on his back, his head propped up by a pillow, was Lee, and on top of Lee was Richard, content to lay peacefully in Lee's arms, their legs tangled together and his head rested upon Lee's shoulder. Stretched out on the rug in front of them was Pete, who had finally passed out after a day full of activity but even then his tail occasionally thumped against the floor, and on a nearby dog bed was Carl, curled up, once more sleeping away.

Sleep beckon Richard. He knew they should really move to their bedroom, but he was far to relaxed and comfortable to move at the moment. 

That was until Lee broke the magic.

"Your cat is after the tree again."

It was funny how Freddie was always 'his cat' when he was doing something bad but 'their cat' when he was being a little angel. Fortunately Freddie was a little angel most of the time and nothing Lee said would convince Richard otherwise.

Shifting slight, because he really didn't want to move, Richard looked towards the tree. Sure enough, Freddie was sitting below the tree, looking up at a low hanging ornament, ready to bat at it.

"Freddie," Richard said in mock horror. "I defended you and you betrayed my trust."

At the sound of his name, Freddie turned his head to look at them and meowed before wandering off to see what kind of mischief he could get in elsewhere. Shaking his head, Richard snuggled back down with Lee. Rest and relaxation however did not come to him as under Richard, Lee began to chuckle, his chest moving up and down causing a disturbance.

"You really told him."

"The tree wasn't knocked over again," Richard helpfully pointed out. "Besides, he's just acting out because he's no longer the youngest child."

That only caused Lee to chuckle more. "Don't be too proud of yourself just yet, let's see if the tree makes it through tomorrow."

"We should dress them up tomorrow," Richard said, "take some pictures in front of the tree before Pete knocks it over again." He then laughed, knowing he deserved the little nudge that Lee gave him.

A quietness filled the room and once again Richard thought about suggesting they head to the bedroom, but in the end he decided it was better to stay put. He was too comfortable to move, laying in Lee's arms was one of his favourite things to do. He felt content, safe, and there was no where else he would rather be.

With Lee he had positively everything he wanted and even if the tree did get toppled over again before Christmas, Richard had everything he could ever want.

Especially once Freddie was dressed in his Christmas outfit.

Because he would look adorable.


End file.
